mike hecht mit haystack observatory

NEROC in Space

NEROC Panel on Radio Science in SpaceMike HechtMIT Haystack Observatory

www.haystack.mit.edu 211/23/2020

Why is space important for NEROC?

• Compelling science, relevant to our expertise, e.g.– Low frequency science not possible below the ionosphere– Longer VLBI baselines than possible on Earth– Planetary mission applications

• Growing opportunities within NASA for university-scale missions

• Radio bands on Earth are increasingly polluted

NEROC in Space

1. Things we’ve done and are doing at Haystack


Project West Ford (aka Project Needles)

• In 1961 and 1963, our Lincoln Lab predecessors launched 480 million small copper dipoles into a medium Earth orbit (3600 km).

• Using 18.5 m antennas, they successfully demonstrated communication at ~20 kbits/sec from Millstone (the present-day Haystack site) to Camp Parks, CA.

• Half-wave dipoles were designed to carry 7.75 and 8.35 GHz and to be separated by an average of 0.3 km

• Goal was jam-proof communications

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AERO & VISTA

AERO: Exploring the Aurora (PI Phil Erickson)VISTA: Demonstrating HF Radio Interferometry with

Vector Sensors (PI Frank Lind)

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AEROAURORAL EMISSIONS

RADIO OBSERVER

VISTAVECTOR INTERFEROMETRY

SPACE TECHNOLOGYUSING AERO

Electromagnetic Vector Sensing (with Lincoln Lab)

Spatially resolved detection with a single electrically

small sensor!

• 3 dipoles + 3 loops (electrically small)• Measures full E and B field vectors

• ExB = S (Poynting vector)• Determines source intensity, polarization,

and direction (to a few degrees)• Some imaging capability

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RADIO OBSERVER



Central Telescoping Deployment

Monopole Burn-Wire

Loop TipDeployment

DeployableTapes

Single NodeThermal Model

Vector antenna deployment

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RADIO OBSERVER



• AERO and VISTA are twin 3U CubeSats that will launch & deploy together into a polar orbit, using drag to control separation.

• Individually, they will answer key scientific questions about the nature and sources of auroral radio emissions at wavelengths largely inaccessible from the surface.

• Together, they will demonstrate interferometric imaging, beamforming, and nulling using electromagnetic vector sensors at low frequencies (50 kHz – 5 MHz).

Mission summary

Perseverance –Coming soon to a planet near you!

• M2020 has traveled over 170 million miles on its 292.5 million mile journey to Mars.

• We are <37 million miles from Earth and <14 million from Mars

• One-way light time >200 sec.

• Entry minus 94 days.

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Cleared for UNLIMITED RELEASE URS URS291877

M. Hecht, MIT/HO (PI)

J. Hoffman, MIT (DPI)

G. Sanders, JSC

D. Rapp, Consultant

G. Voecks, JPL

K. Lackner, ASU

J. Hartvigsen, Ceramatec

P. Smith, Space Expl. Instr.

W. T. Pike, Imperial Coll.

M. Madsen, U. Copen.

C. Graves, DTU (Coll.)

M. de la Torre Juarez, JPL (Coll.)

Jet Propulsion LaboratoryCalifornia Institute of Technology

J. Mellstrom , Project Manager

GOT OXYGEN?

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What will MOXIE do? MOXIE is a 1:200 scale model of an

ISRU plant for a human mission, ingesting CO2 from the atmosphere and producing propellant-grade O2

MOXIE will make 6-10 g of oxygen per hour Like a smallish tree, or about 50% of what

you breathe

O2 purity will be >99.6%.

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Installation in Perseverance rover

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NEROC in Space

2. Things we’d like to doat Haystack

• Haystack in Space


Vector Sensor Planetary Radar?

ACORN (proposed)J. Holt, PI

(Kari Haworth)


Geodesy: VGOS in Space

NEROC in Space

3. Four things we can do together


1. Projects too big for just one of us

• Heliophysics missions– H-TIDES & HFORT Science/Technology

• Increasing cap to ~$10M for HFORT• Source of AERO and VISTA funding

– Regular SALMON calls ($50M-$75M) for rideshare– MIDEX call (~$150M)

• Astrophysics missions & mission studies– Occasional SALMON calls ($35M-$75M)– Typically preceded by mission study calls (~$150K)

• Planetary science missions (focus on instruments)– SALMON– SIMPLEx 2018 (rideshares)– Discovery PI-led missions (~$450M)– Flagship missions


2. Coordinated Science Observations

Semeter et al. 2009

Semeter et al. 2009

AMSIR / EISCAT 3D Incoherent Scatter Radar Auroral Diagnostics Optical

Auroral Diagnostics

Labelle 2006

HF Radar Auroral Diagnostics (SuperDARN) Ground

BasedRadio Receivers


3. Sharing resources:

Westford’s 18-m “ground station” – Primary Use for NASA Geodesy Program Development– Several days per week for Geodesy ops– Prime focus QHFR feed (2 to 14 GHz) – Cryogenic LNAs (Tsys ~ 80 to 120K)– Prime and Cassegrain feed points– Single operator for monitoring– Less accurate in ‘fast slew’ modes


4. Designing missions together??

• Many space agencies and aerospace companies have mission design centers, such as JPL’s Team X.

• These centers use concurrent engineering to support proposals by quickly designing all aspects of a mission, from thermal design to navigation and from budget and schedule to mission assurance.

• We are exploring equipping groups of students with models and training to engage in similar exercises in support of SmallSat and CubeSat missions

• Team NEROC??

www.haystack.mit.edu 2211/23/2020 SMEX/MOO Kickoff, 29 April 2016

GENERALBackup


SmallSat Topics of interest

• Heliophysics– Interferometry of solar radio bursts– Auroral studies– Beacon tomography networks

• Astrophysics– EHT in space?– Bent-pipe Earth-based interferometry– Validation of cosmic dawn detection: EDGES in space

• Earth science– Long baseline geodetic VLBI

• Planetary Science– Compact shallow ground-penetrating radar for orbital missions

• Space Infrastructure– Autonomous navigation using time variable and spectral line radio sources– Beamed power satellites for lunar and planetary surface exploration

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Covering all 4 NASA science disciplines & SpaceTech


HELIOPHYSICSSmallSats for


For HF (<10 MHz), need to go to space

• Radio Astronomy Explorers (RAE) I & II• Electric field probes (Ulysses, WIND, Cassini, STEREO)• Limited interferometry (traditionally big & complex).

– CLUSTER measured AKR angle of arrival

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AERO Science questions

Science Question MeasurementPrimary:

Does AKR couple to modes that propagate to low altitudes? If so, is the propagation ducted or non-ducted?

How are MF burst emissions generated? Is the source in the topside or bottomside? Extended or concentrated?

Determine apparent direction, time, amplitude, frequency and mode dependence of emissions

Secondary:How do the locations of roar, burst, AKR, and LF hiss relate

to the auroral current system and to auroral arcs?

Relate strong auroral radio emissions to magnetic & optical signatures in Birkeland Region 1.

Technology:Can polarized auroral emission from concentrated sources

be localized with a vector sensor? How do vector sensors perform as interferometer elements?

Validate angle of arrival determination for strong sources.

Compare


How to build an HF space Interferometer

At least 4 CubeSats separated by 1 -10 km Frequency band: 50 kHz-20 MHz Geosynchronous orbit to get above ionosphere Propulsion to hold approximate positions GPS or an internal beacon system to precisely

determine relative positions Compact antennas (electrically short 3-axis

monopole or vector sensor) Timing: Chip-scale atomic clock High bandwidth laser downlink (many Gb/s) Correlation on the ground

Vector antennas


Next target – solar radio bursts


ASTROPHYSICSBackup


EHT Science: Space VLBI at <1 mm

Challenges: High precision antenna >3 m

– Deployable from ESPA may be possible

Many Gb/s download needed– TBird lasercom ok

Low temperature receiver– Not necessarily 4K, HEMT may be ok

High precision clock– Could condition crystal oscillator

Low hanging fruit? Bent-pipe lasercom from remote locations, especially South Pole telescope


Bowman et al 2018

EoR Science: EDGES (Bowman & Rogers)


CODEXTHE COSMIC DAWN

EXPLORER

EDGES observation of 78 MHz absorption feature was a major breakthrough in EoR research

Depth of absorption may imply a fundamentally new physical understanding of the early universe (Dark matter interactions? Underestimated black hole contribution?)

EDGES is an extremely sensitive, low-SNR measurement that has proven challenging for other groups to replicate– Community has been appropriately reserved about accepting the result without

confirmation Foreground removal requires 5 term fit to reveal feature

– Physically based and validated by experiment variation– Nonetheless, could achieve similar result with simple forms (e.g gaussian plus sinusoid)

that are conceivably artifact-based

EDGES History



EXPLORER

Primary objective: Validate EDGES measurement in an FM-free and atmosphere-free environment– Sky sources remain challenging, including reflection of relatively unknown lunar

near-surface– But the foreground is sufficiently simpler and different that a confirming

observation would be definitive 12U CubeSat in lunar orbit with height between 1000-1500 km

– Orient antenna to put lunar surface in null >1000 km– Too high insufficient time in lunar shadow

Low TRL but low degree of difficulty – EDGES hardware is essentially in CubeSat-scale format– High SNR, need only a few days duration (several hours in shadow)– Low data rates, low power– One simple linear deployment

Challenge is in precision calibration (and subsequent data analysis)

CubeSat validation concept



EXPLORER

Electrically small with very low chromaticity Monopole puts null in nadir direction, but otherwise samples

moon uniformly (moon is at ~300K compared to ~20,000K sky) There is plenty of SNR; chromaticity is the challenge!

Antenna design approach


HELIOPHYSICSBackup


Mission Objectives

Nominal launch date in 1st Quarter of 2022

BackupMore MOXIE

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On the road to… Mars!Cargo mission HABitat Descent/Ascent Vehicle (DAV) Rovers (pressurized & unpressurized?) 25-30 kW power plant (Kilopower? Photovoltaic?) 32 tons propellant (Fuel & oxidizer) or ISRU plant …

Human mission Mars Transfer Vehicle The Crew Toothbrush, etc.

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Remember the old movies. Orbital mechanics as an excuse for a personal observation…

Why we need an “oxygenator:”

Everything that burns fuel needs to breathe! Oxygen weighs several times the weight of the fuel

The biggest fuel burner on Mars? The Ascent Vehicle!

The single heaviest thing we need to bring with us to Mars? A full oxygen tank for the ascent vehicle.

To launch a crew of 4 takes ~25 tons of O2 & 7 tons of fuel

In a 150-day mission, the crew only breathes ~0.5 ton O2

How does it work?

Meyen (2015)

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Presenter

Presentation Notes

LSM – Lanthanum Strontium Manganate. CFY = Chromium Iron Yttrium

Putting MOXIE together

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What will MOXIE do on Mars?

We expect a “MOXIE sol” every 2 months or so MOXIE will run for a ~2 hour session. Much of that time is spent heating

the SOXE to 800˚C, the rest making oxygen. One run will consume ~1000 W-hr of spacecraft energy – the full

payload allocation for a typical sol!

We’re planning 3 mission phases: Characterization Operation Experimentation

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Sponsors and Partners Supported by HEO/AES, STMD/Tech Demos

Mars 2020 Project managed by SMD

ISRU Technology, NASA GRC

Aarhus wind tunnel

Thank you,

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Backup

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More AeroVista

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Auroral Kilometric Radio Emission

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U. Iowa, “Prof. D. Gurnett’s Favorite Space Sounds” (http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/space-audio/sounds/)

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Cluster is a set of four Earth-orbiting spacecraft that fly in a formation that allows us to detect the differences between time and space features of the signals we measure. In this instance the wideband plasma wave instruments, WBD, on Cluster 3 (Samba) and Cluster 4 (Tango) simultaneously measured a radio signal known as "Auroral Kilometric Radiation" or AKR, allowing for a spatially separated stereo audio recording. AKR radio emissions are associated with the energetic electrons that collide with molecules high in the atmosphere above Earth's polar regions and produce the aurora. These signals occur at frequencies far above the range of human hearing, but this mode of the WBD instrument samples the frequency range from 251 kHz to 261 kHz at a rate that can be played back as sound in the audible range from 1 to 11 kHz. Additionally, this recording is slowed down by a factor of two so that the 18-second sample takes 36 seconds to play and the top frequencies are shifted down to 5.5 kHz. Complex structure can be heard in AKR samples, and combining the measurements from all four spacecraft yields new insights into how these structures are distributed in time and space.

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MSU 21 meter

Radio Band Frequency Range

Gain Uses of Band

UHF 400-480 MHz 30 dBi Satellite Telecom

S-Band 2.2-2.5 GHz 52.8 dBi Both Satellite Telecom and Radio Astronomy

X-Band 7.0-8.4GHz 62.0 dBi Primarily Satellite Telecom

Ku-Band 11.2-12.7 GHz 65.50 dBi Primarily Satellite Telecom

MSU 21 Meter Fully DSN Compatible ground station (DSS-17)

Full Remote Control of All Systems X-Band Downlink Currently- Uplink planned NASA NEN Compatible Software-Defined TT&C Processor (SoftFEP) and High Data Rate

Digitizer for Experimental Missions Extensive use of Student Operators (STEM Engagement) Heritage with LRO, Planetlabs Dove, ISEE-3, and many cubesats

(e.g. ASTERIA, Firefly, etc...)

ISEE-3 Carrier During Lunar Fly-by

Sept 2014


EXPLORATIONBackup


Space solar power for the Moon and Mars?

Example: Power for a lunar lander

7 kW radiated power in 1 meter spot

Usable power comparable to MMRTG

Conventional surface station

SmallSat-scale orbiter 1 kW-hr battery 2.5 m2 solar panel

Spot sizePointing accuracy (arcsec) 1Wavelength (µm) 1Orbit height (km) 200Mirror diameter (cm) 20Dispersion (arcsec) 1.03Minimum spot size (m) 1Pointing accuracy (m) 0.97

Broadcast powerLink time per orbit (min) 4Orbit period (min) 132Orbiter panel area (m^2) 2.5Solar constant (W/m^2) 1361Orbiter panel efficiency (%) 25%Illumination duty cycle 50%Energy collected (kW-hr/orbit) 0.94Laser wall plug efficiency (%) 50%Radiated power (kW) 7.0Lander panel efficiency (%) 50%Geometric collection efficiency 80%Surface illumination (kW/m^2) 8.9Average surface power (W) 108.3


Radio-based navigation

mike hecht mit haystack observatory

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